Help:A guide to the Klingon Encyclopedia
This is a guide to the Klingon Wikipedia for non-native speakers of Klingon. Most of contents can be applied to other Klingon projects expectedly. =Be bold= * The motto of the first Star Trek series says it all: "To boldly go where no man has gone before" - don't be afraid to write! We all know that the Klingon language is not so easy, and words for many things are still unknown to humans. But it's still possible to write about many things, just the wikia a little. * Don't be afraid to make mistakes. There is probably nobody who speaks Klingon perfectly, so don't hesitate to write, just because you are not sure about some grammatical rule. * If you don't know the right translation for one word, just write it in English inside the text. Someone who knows the word for it will replace it. =Getting started= There are probably not many people who can write a Klingon text just from their mind, for most people it's easier to translate an existing text. There are a few ways to get a Klingon text: * translate your own text # Write a few lines about whatever you want to describe in English first. # Then go ahead and translate these. Don't bother if there are some words you do not know, they will be changed by someone who knows them. * translate a foreign text # Go to a Wikipedia page of your choice, and find an article you want to write about. (note: it's useful to go to simple English Wikipedia, since that's easier to translate). # Be sure to check the copyrights of this page. # Translate it into Klingon. If you are unsure how to translate one sentence of the original text, just drop it, or use the english word if you don't know the Klingon word. * complete an existing article # Browse the Klingon wikia and pick any page you like which you think is incomplete. Most are at this moment. # Add any information you like. Even when you do not understand all of the existing text, you will see at least in your new sentence if the words have been used before. * make corrections # Browse the Klingon wikia until you find a typo (thl instead of tlh) or grammatical mistakes (like suffix violation or sentence order) # Change it into something that you think sounds better or correct. NOTE: Nobody is perfect. We don't expect to find perfect Klingon articles. Just go ahead and write, even if you know that you make a mistake - it will soon be corrected by someone who knows better! Qapla'! =General rules= We do not teach Klingon * This is NOT A DICTIONARY! * Do not post lists of vocabulary * Do not create pages that include only a translation of the page's name * Do not create pages that teach the Klingon language * On the other hand, it is no problem to have pages explaining a Klingon word, as long as you do so IN KLINGON Transliterations * Do not create your own Klingon words * Do not invent transliterations. First, it is difficult for beginners to see the difference between a Klingon word and a transliteration. Second, transliterations can never be clear. For instance, most people would know the word Germany, but a german would transliterate Deutschland to DoychlanD, a french says '' 'almanye' '' and in english it becomes jermanIy. non-Klingon words inside the text * Non-Klingon words inside an article must be in English. Many people in the world do speak English, and it would become a mess if we had seven different languages inside one article. * Same goes for geographical names, which are all written in English. If you mention such a name inside an article, it can be followed by its original name in brackets (e.g. DaHjaj Cologne (Köln) vIDab) * When using a non-Klingon word or a name in a text, then write it italics, so that everyone can see that it's not Klingon. When writing italic, please be careful with words that contain two apostrophes, like SuvwI''a', because these two apostrophes are also used for the italic formatting. To avoid this problem, you might need to write the apostrophe using this code: ' names of articles * If you want to write a Klingon article about something which has no Klingon word (like pancake or shampoo), then just name it using the English word. In case you are not sure about which spelling to use, always use the English word, or the original word if it is widely used in English. * If there is no known klingon spelling (like DoyIchlan), then names of countries will be written in English only (e.g. Brazil). Any redirect from other languages are redundant, there are too many languages in the world. The second line of the article should mention its original name (e.g. veng tIn 'oH '''Colognee'. DoyIchlan Hol pongDaj 'oH Köln'e'.) * Names of languages will be written in English only and followed by the Klingon word Hol (e.g. Persia Hol), unless the country's name is known in (e.g. vIraS Hol). NB: These rules might be good or not, but we must come to a convention to avoid too many different entries. There has been a in our bar, it is completed and closed for now. Animals * Use Klingon names to describe terran animals; * Describe Terran animals when using Klingon words. :Explanation: For instance, describe a cat when you describe the vIghro'. Do not write an article named cat. We all do know that a vIghro' is different from a cat, but the problem is that nobody knows what a vIghro' really is - except that it's similar to a cat - and, on the other hand, we all know what a cat is, but there is no klingon word for it. Unless any canon source has given a specific desription of an alien animal, we will use the terran desription for it. Maybe one day, when there are really many and long article, we could destinguish them like tlhIngan vIghro', tIqa' vIghro' and tera' vIghro'. But in that case we would use the Klingon word anyway.